Do you have only 30 hours in Busan? Do not worry, I still could enjoy this second largest city in Korea during that short period, you may follow my way. I arrived at 10 am and left this city at 4 pm on the next day and managed to visit at least four places of interest. I select to visit Busan because of at least two reasons, experience and opportunity. It is said that Busan has a number of good tourist spots attracting me to see them, and a low cost air carrier Air Asia serves this city.
First is the stored-value card. I learnt that Busan operates its own stored-value card, the Cashbee. Although it has almost the same covering area as the better known T-money card of Seoul but it is said that in Busan it is very hard to buy a T-money. I preferred to use the T-money because I planned to visit Seoul as well. Surprisingly I got T-money cards very easily in a Seven-Eleven store in the Arrival Hall of Busan International Airport. By using this card for public transportation such as subways and city buses you will get a discount of about 7.5% provided you tap the card in prior to take a train or bus and then tap it out when you alight from them. Once I forgot to or improperly tap the card out and I lost 1200 won or 1.2 dollars.
During in Busan I managed to visit Gamcheon cultural village, Oryukdo skywalk, the City Hall, and Nampodong area. My first priority is Oryukdo skywalk which can be visited by buses only. I took bus 27 from Busan Station for about 50 minutes. It is located in the seashore which is decorated with views of the sea and a number of small islands. Up the hill, there is a cantilever bridge of 15 meters long made out of glass enabling you to see the sea 35 meters below you. Perhaps this is the only stunning tourist spot in Busan. Moreover the admission is free. All binoculars to look at the islands in detail are also free to use. I will advise you to put this spot on higher priority in your Busan itinerary.
To Gamcheon, you can take bus 2 from Toseong subway station. To me it is not a real cultural village where I could expect to see traditional buildings, watch traditional performance, taste traditional foods etc, but it is still good to see if you are there in Busan. I learnt that there are two access streets to Gamcheon. The first is a steep downhill street with views of houses painted in color in the valley and on the hillside across. The view is nice but not very special. Perhaps this path is not good for people having knee problems. The second access is a relatively flat street around the valley which is filled with food stores, cafes, and souvenir shops. You still can enjoy the panoramic colorful houses from this street. I think it is a good idea to put Gamcheon in the second priority in your itinerary in Busan.
The City Hall is integrated with the City Hall subway station. In the lobby area there is a giant maquette of Busan city making me amaze how big the city is and how the city was built on the sidelines of many hills here and there. Unfortunately there is no information or leaflets in English. It seems that this is not for tourists but just for their own local people only. Unless you are an architect, urban designer in particular, you will not be interested in it. Behind the City Hall there is a large nice park but it is not special.
Nampodong is a shopping district served by two subway stations, Nampo and Jagalchi. They are connected one to another by an underground shopping arcade. Although not many, you may find souvenir shops within Nampodong. Most spots are crammed with restaurants, food stalls, and garment shops. A small piece of Nampodong, the BIFF, is decorated with footprints of Korean stars. But it is nothing if you are not their fans, I am not.